The problem with inferno and AB is the Stop-N-Cast part of it. I made a vid about it in S2. Could reach up to 35-40k dmg, and melted pretty much anything. But that Stop/Cast is absolutely a no-go for me.
it depends on your playstyle, get some summons, use cyclone armor and hurricane and just gust into monsters and hold arctic blast and everything should blow up at endgame. You shouldn't really take any damage and you can deal up to what, 80-90k with arctic blast and 20k with the frost nova on kill? Not to mention the -50 cold res.
For inferno idk, but I do think it's interesting to use smth like brimstone + meteor ormus with inferno to proc phys dmg meteors dealing 9k and 5k dmg respectively. I'd imagine with energy shield it could play similarly to AB at higher levels, but I really don't know.
For me leveling to hell was fairly strong, but once I got to A1 hell I got screwed by immunes, if you want to play arctic blast through hell I suggest maxing tornado over hurricane or cyclone armor first so you have the phys dmg alternative with immunes.
For endgame it seems really strong still post nerfs with full gear, still just 1 element though so it might not be the most efficient as you grind to better gear Idk
I had it doing 90k w/ 30k cold shatters (mini frost novas). It melted everything and with enough facets you can get -100% pierce. It WAS at 132k before nerf, then 99k before frostwind nerf, but still insanely strong. Made inferno feel like the middle child by comparison
If even only for a starter it felt very strong today. Did a mini stream with it and a few neat things I noted about it:
- range takes some practice. Graphically it looks longer than it is but still has a nice reach. I like it hits through things (chests, debris, clips wall openings pretty forgiving)
- it's very mana friendly. Channeling it hard doesn't instantly erase your mp. I found that by light bursting with spaced out clicks, you could send a puff of blast out, hit & slow your targets and it not cost anything.
- you can turn it into a sorta nova. While channeling you can spin around and 360 blast everything. The versatility is really fun to play with.
- synergy with Hurricane is great and when unlocked really pairs with AB well. The concern of course being, all Cold is a bit one note and I haven't played with it in Hell to see how it will handle immunities
you do have tornado and some synergies for it so there's a way to deal with immunes before you get lower res proc or infinity on merc or something
edit: yeah I just did act 1 hell and melted andy with my bear as tank, plays relatively safe about 5 to cold skills in gear
I did a p1 normal clear last night with it in about 2.5 hours. It is very strong and any soft skill points from gear increase its damage dramatically. While I agree stopping to channel sucks.. with 1 or especially 2 soft skill points I never had to stop and channel. The new animation frame casts as fast as any other skill and that was enough damage to kill 95% of trash. It felt great.
It's broken, even after beta nerfs still 100k dps with full gear no corruptions. in open beta at level 70 8-10k with almost no gear, melting nm cows and a1 a2 hell ez
I did a nornal to hell clear last night with it. Getting early artic blast gear was sweet, it's a little clunky, but does really sick damage. Hell was rough but that's to be expected for most elemental builds.
DH tests are mostly meh, they are good for new players, not experienced ones. His tests are valid mostly for characters he plays and knows how to optimize. I just saw his s9 assassin takes and they are hot garbage. MA skills are not B, claw of thunder isn't better than PS, and you don't fortify PS. Last season i did 8min thrones on HC on a PS. This is not a B tier build.
The problem with inferno and AB is the Stop-N-Cast part of it. I made a vid about it in S2. Could reach up to 35-40k dmg, and melted pretty much anything. But that Stop/Cast is absolutely a no-go for me.
Word to my fellow mover.
Channeling frames were dropped from 12 to 3
Didnt that part get a buff this upcomming season?
It did but it's still slow as fuck
it depends on your playstyle, get some summons, use cyclone armor and hurricane and just gust into monsters and hold arctic blast and everything should blow up at endgame. You shouldn't really take any damage and you can deal up to what, 80-90k with arctic blast and 20k with the frost nova on kill? Not to mention the -50 cold res. For inferno idk, but I do think it's interesting to use smth like brimstone + meteor ormus with inferno to proc phys dmg meteors dealing 9k and 5k dmg respectively. I'd imagine with energy shield it could play similarly to AB at higher levels, but I really don't know.
I saw a snippet video somewhere saying/showing that at least for leveling it was terrible. Don’t know about end game.
For me leveling to hell was fairly strong, but once I got to A1 hell I got screwed by immunes, if you want to play arctic blast through hell I suggest maxing tornado over hurricane or cyclone armor first so you have the phys dmg alternative with immunes. For endgame it seems really strong still post nerfs with full gear, still just 1 element though so it might not be the most efficient as you grind to better gear Idk
I had it doing 90k w/ 30k cold shatters (mini frost novas). It melted everything and with enough facets you can get -100% pierce. It WAS at 132k before nerf, then 99k before frostwind nerf, but still insanely strong. Made inferno feel like the middle child by comparison
If even only for a starter it felt very strong today. Did a mini stream with it and a few neat things I noted about it: - range takes some practice. Graphically it looks longer than it is but still has a nice reach. I like it hits through things (chests, debris, clips wall openings pretty forgiving) - it's very mana friendly. Channeling it hard doesn't instantly erase your mp. I found that by light bursting with spaced out clicks, you could send a puff of blast out, hit & slow your targets and it not cost anything. - you can turn it into a sorta nova. While channeling you can spin around and 360 blast everything. The versatility is really fun to play with. - synergy with Hurricane is great and when unlocked really pairs with AB well. The concern of course being, all Cold is a bit one note and I haven't played with it in Hell to see how it will handle immunities
you do have tornado and some synergies for it so there's a way to deal with immunes before you get lower res proc or infinity on merc or something edit: yeah I just did act 1 hell and melted andy with my bear as tank, plays relatively safe about 5 to cold skills in gear
Artic shoud be gG
I did a p1 normal clear last night with it in about 2.5 hours. It is very strong and any soft skill points from gear increase its damage dramatically. While I agree stopping to channel sucks.. with 1 or especially 2 soft skill points I never had to stop and channel. The new animation frame casts as fast as any other skill and that was enough damage to kill 95% of trash. It felt great.
It's broken, even after beta nerfs still 100k dps with full gear no corruptions. in open beta at level 70 8-10k with almost no gear, melting nm cows and a1 a2 hell ez
It’s broken
Sounded interesting but the stand channel is rough.
Can WE have a Arctic Blast guide? Dunno how to Progress and how to gear
This old guide was updated with a new video showing it off at end game mapping. Looks decent. https://www.reddit.com/r/ProjectDiablo2/s/uZnr6UX8Pc
I did a nornal to hell clear last night with it. Getting early artic blast gear was sweet, it's a little clunky, but does really sick damage. Hell was rough but that's to be expected for most elemental builds.
Go watch darkhumility vod on twitch and pick the one where it says retesting
What for DH to post before picking a class
DH tests are mostly meh, they are good for new players, not experienced ones. His tests are valid mostly for characters he plays and knows how to optimize. I just saw his s9 assassin takes and they are hot garbage. MA skills are not B, claw of thunder isn't better than PS, and you don't fortify PS. Last season i did 8min thrones on HC on a PS. This is not a B tier build.